“Design fixation” is the tendency to fixate on the features of known solutions when trying to create novel solutions (Jansson & Smith, 1991). For example, a subject who is shown an existing chair and then asked to design an improved chair is likely to fixate on features of the existing chair when attempting to design an improved chair. Such fixation can lead the subject to overlook features that would be useful to include in an improved chair, but which are lacking in the existing chair.
Furthermore, it is well known that people struggle with recognizing analogous solutions that are provided to them before working on a particular problem. In an experiment, a story can be read before a problem is provided. The story contains an analogous solution. Without explicit hints, very few subjects (e.g., only about 10%) recognize the analogy and transfer the solution to the problem on which they are assigned to work (Gick and Holyoak, 1980, 1983). As these experiments demonstrate, it is difficult for people to transfer analogies from one situation to another.